Abstract
Soil samples were collected from two region Al-anbar (Al-fallujah district) and Wasit of Iraq with an aim to determine the activity concentration using a coaxial high purity germanium (HPGe) detector based on high-resolution gamma spectrometry system. 226Ra, 232Th, the primordial radionuclide 40K, and the artificial radionuclide 137Cs were measured in the soil of the study area. The mean radioactivity concentration in Al-anbar (Al-fallujah district) and Wasit region due to 226Ra, 232Th, 40K, and 137Cs was (20.36, 11.08, 226.97, and 1.01Bq kg-1) and (23.01, 14.45, 290.64, and 2.22 Bq kg-1), respectively. Radium equivalent activity (Raeq), representative level index (Iγ), absorbed gamma dose rate (D) in air, total annual effective dose equivalent (AEDE) from the terrestrial gamma radiation, the external and internal hazard index were estimated. The mean of six hazard index values came out to be (53.67Bq kg-1, 0.38Bq kg-1, 24.78Bq kg-1, 0.15mSv y-1, 0.14Bq kg-1, and 0.19Bq kg-1) in Al-anbar (Al-fallujah district) and (66.17Bq kg-1, 0.49 Bq kg-1, 32.08 Bq kg-1, 0.2mSv y-1, 0.18 Bq kg-1, and 0.24 Bq kg-1) in Wasit, respectively. Present data have been compared with the published data for other regions of the world near from the study area and found to be safe for public and environment.
Highlights
Human beings have always been exposed to natural radiations arising from within and outside the earth
Soil samples were collected from three selected sites at Al-anbar (Al-fallujah district) governorate and six selected sites at Wasit governorate, which were chosen for two reasons: first record rise in cancers and birth defects rates in the surrounding residential areas of sites according to the information that has been obtained from hospital near the sites or from the governorate council and the second that these areas have seen some of them military operations were reconstruction and other division is the remnants of the wreckage of vehicles and wheels military destroyer and some rubble of buildings
Annual Effective Dose Rate The annual effective dose rates expected to be received by the general public due to the radioactivity in soil was calculated using Eq (4 & 5) the conversion coefficient from absorbed dose rate in air to effective dose (0.7 Sv Gy-1) and an outdoor occupancy factor (20%) proposed by UNSCEAR 2000 are used [1, 4, 7]
Summary
Human beings have always been exposed to natural radiations arising from within and outside the earth. The exposure to ionizing radiations from natural sources occurs because of the naturally occurring radioactive elements in the soil and rocks, cosmic rays entering the earth’s atmosphere from outer space and the internal exposure through incorporation of these radionuclides into the body by inhalation or ingestion. These radionuclides and their radioactive decay products are an important source of earth’s radioactivity [1, 2]. The average annual radiation dose to world population is 2.8 mSv approximately 85% (2.4 mSv) of this comes from natural radionuclides of both terrestrial and cosmogenic origin [3]. Sixty percent of the collective effective dose equivalent commitment from external radiation associated with past atmospheric
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